March 30, 2079. Almost ten years after the Invasion.

In the Old World Ash story might have seem like a tragedy. A young boy with no parents and no home to call his own wandering the wastes of what was once one of the greatest nation of the world. Unfortunately that tale is all too common nowaday and most people were too occupied with their own survival to care about yet another homeless kid.

But things were looking up today. The snow was finally melting off after a long winter. Ash hadn't been sure he would have been able to survive this one. The cold seasons was very unforgiving for anyone without a roof above their head. But somehow he managed to pull it off.

One of the advantages of the apocalypse is that no one would care if he took shelter in one of the many appartements buildings left to rot in the abandoned cities and towns. It didn't offer much protection from the cold without electricity but it was better than nothing.

However a shelter still did not provid food and water. And that was a bit more difficult to find nowadays. He had some odd jobs there and then that would provide him with money but not everyone would trust a kid like him with important jobs.

However there was also one place he had managed to take advantage of and that was where he was heading up to now.

Ash passed the now familiar sign that proudly exclaimed 'Welcome to Melody Town!' It was a pretty special town. It was the only town that Ash knew of that did not have a wall surrounding it and still managed to survive against wild Pokémon.

And that was thanks to the giant speakers laying atop the mayor's house in the center of the settlement. Apparently the town had found a radio frequency that Pokémon did not like at all and were blastling it off twenty four hours a day. And thankfully it was a frequency so high that humans couldn't even hear it.

Ash tought it was a really stupid idea. If the electricity ever ran out or if the radio simply stopped working Pokémon would simply rush inside and wipe out the town. But it's not like it was really his concern, sure it would be a bit inconvenient since it was one of his best eating spot. But he could live without it. It wouldn't be the first time one of his favorite spots stopped existing overnight.

Speaking of eating spots he was getting really close to his destination now... But before he rounded a corner he stopped and pressed his body against a wall. He could smell the scent of burning metal. It was a smell that he could never forget. He peaked around the corner and cursed lowly under his breath when his suspicions were confirmed.

''Damn, the Knights of Humanity are here.'' The Knights of Humanity were an extremist group who wanted to wipe out the Pokémon off the planet. Ash could sympathize with their goals for obvious reasons and up until about three years ago he had considered joining them. However he knew all too well that they didn't have the best interests of humanity at heart.

The knights gained their name from the fact that they wore heavy suits of power armors. It was a suit made to tap into a human's life energy and bring it out to allow them to control the dormant elemental powers sleeping within. It was one of the very few weapons humanity had manage to create that could actually kill Pokémon, since conventional weapons like guns, blades and explosions did nothing but annoy them.

Each armors were equiped with large stripes of lights that went from the top of their helmet all the way down to the rear of the armor. Most of the knights had different colors of lights and from what Ash knew the color usually indicated what type the knight was able to tap into. Unlike Pokémon, humans were only able to tap into a single type. There was no such thing as a dual type human.

Ash was wondering what they were doing in the middle of the streets and why such a large crowd had formed around them. He got his response soon when a knight with a red stripe of lights dragged an older man into the street with a single hand. In his other hand was something that caught Ash completely off guard.

At first glance it seemed just like a regular rabbit. But upon further inspection there was just a few things that were off like how large it's eyes were and the fact that it's larger than average ears had what looked like brown fingers on top of them. Ash had a suspicion of what the 'animal' really was but his theory was confirmed when the creatured cried out. ''Bunelby!'' As it struggled against the armored man grip.

''It's a Pokémon.'' He whispered silently to himself. How had a Pokémon manage to sneak it's way into the town? Even if it had a owner the sound of the speakers should make it want to run away as soon as it came out of it's Draconid Gem.

''Cedric Romalos! You are declared guilty of treason for housing an enemy of humanity!'' The knight with a red stripe yelled for everyone to hear.

''No don't hurt Irwin! He's just a pet I swear! He's completely deaf, he would be useless in battle!'' The old man plead.

Well that explained how the Pokémon was able to live here then, Ash tought to himself.

However the pleading of the old man were left ignored as the knight red stripe started glowing brightly and the Bunnelby instantly caught fire. It screamed in pain and trashed around as it burned alive. In a matter of seconds the Pokémon's body turned to ash and disappeared without a trace into the wind.

Ash should feel joy at seeing one of those damn invaders die like that. But somehow the display of violence made him feel more disturbed than anything else. He still tought Pokémon should be killed but not in such a sadistic and painful way.

Then the knight turned toward Cedric who was weeping at the fact he had just lost his beloved pet. The knight mercilessly extended his arm and burned the old man alive too. At this point Ash had to close his eyes. But he could still hear the painful cries of the man before it quickly faded into silence.

Ash stayed huddled against the wall until the knights and the crowd dispersed. He managed to make his way to a trashcan before he promply threw up his nonexistant lunch inside. As much as he hated Pokémon Ash hated those damn knights so damn much more.

Finally after all the delays Ash had finally managed to make his way to his destination. It was a Mcdonald of all things, probably the last of it's kinds in this New World. Technically speaking it wasn't a real Mcdonald. The original franchise owners were now long dead and burried. But no one had bothered to change the name of the restaurant and it's not like there was anyone left to sue them.

But Ash did not made his way to the entrance of the restaurant. instead he made his way around and went to the back until he came face to face with an old worn down metallic door that he promply rapped his fist on.

At first it seemed like no one had heard him. He waited a full minute and was about to knock once again but just as he raised his fist the metallic door opened and an old woman poked her head out. As soon as she saw him the old woman neutral expression turned into a deep scowl.

''Ash Ketchum. I told you to never come back here. You're taking away food for the poor kids who actually live here.'' She said with a tone of annoyed contempt.

''And I said I would only leave you alone for a few months. Come on my winter reserves just ran out! I need some sort of food.'' Ash replied with his best puppy eyes.

The old grouchy woman sighed tiredly before handing him a wrapped hamburger. ''Now get out of here before my boss get on my ass again, shoo!'' With that she slammed the door in his face and left Ash alone with his sad lone hamburger.

He had been hopping to get much more than a single meal but it looked like he had used all his goodwill here. As he took a bite of the hamburger he made a face. Damn she had clearly given him a burger that was past it's expiration date. ''Damn old witch.'' He muttered lowly before begrudgingly taking another bite of the burger.

As he finished the last bite of his less than ideal meal he beagn to think about where to go next. He had planned to stay a day or two here but with his rations being completely dried up arleady that was now out of the question.

''Let's see Getaro has almost run out of ressources and won't get anymore before their summer harvest so it's not even worth thinking about. Accorda got overun by Earth Elestia last month and I'm not even sure if the town still even exist, so definetly not. Violina might be a good place but it's way too close to Boreas territory for my tastes... What about Bajoon? Sure they're a bunch of stuck up but they definitely have the best paying odd jobs, Bajoon it is then.''

''Do you always talk to yourself?'' A voice asked behind him, making him jump up in surprise. When he turned around he saw a girl around the same age as him. As soon as he took in her appearance his first tought was that she must be pretty well off. She wore white clothes that had no signs of any dirt or any blemishes, her long blonde hair looked silky smooth and clean and unlike most of the kids he knew in the street she had a bit of a belly. She wasn't overweight by any mean but she had a healthy amount of fat that complimented her figure beautifully.

Ash would lie if he said he didn't think she was attractive. People might say he can be a bit dense sometime but he can recognise a really pretty girl when he saw one. In fact she look a bit too pretty. As if that amount of perfection shouldn't exist in a world like this. But that might just be his mind being too paranoid for his own good.

''Well I'm the only person that like the sound of my voice so I might as well huh?'' He replied when he noticed he had been starring dumbly at her for a full minute. Way to make a first great impression, stupid. Not like someone like him ever had a chance with a girl like this anyway and he didn't have the time to waste on romance anyway. His plate was full trying to find food for himself he couldn't burden himself with another mouth to feed, no matter how pretty that mouth is... Focus Ash! Stop acting like some sort dumb teenager even tought that's what you are!

''So do you live here?'' The blonde girl ask.

At that Ash raised an eyebrow and gestured toward his old worn down clothes that barely even fitted him anymore. ''Do I look like I live anywhere?''

At the question the girl seemed to recoiled in shock before she developed a look of sadness as comprehension dawned on her. ''I'm sorry if that sound weird. But do you know what year it is?''

Ash looked at the girl with a confused expression. She was not normal, most people would look the other way when seeing a vagabond like him wandering in town. Not only that but she looked even more lost than him and that's saying something. ''Huh last time I check it was the year 2079, Why? Are you some sort of time traveler or something?''

At that the girl laughed it was a melodious sound that made Ash feel light and at ease. ''The world might be crazy, but I'm pretty sure time travel don't exist... At least, I hope so. I don't want to imagine what a bad Pokémon might do with that sort of power.'' She shuddered and Ash couldn't help but join her. That was an horrifying tought to think about. Pokémon were arleady dangerous enough without the ability to rewrite history.

''Let's just say I've been out out of civilisation for a while and leave it at that.'' She replied and Ash looked at her perfect look once again and didn't really believe her excuse for a second. There was no way someone who had been out in the wild for that long would still have clothes that looked like they came straight out of the store or hair that looked like it had been cleaned on a daily basis for that matter.

But in the end it really wasn't any of his business so he simply nodded in acceptance. ''Yeah I know how that feel.'' There was again that look of sadness in her eyes but it quickly fade away. ''So anyway, my name is Ash Ketchum. What's yours?'' He asked while sticking out a hand for her to shake.

The girl hesitantly reached for his hand before responding. ''Lillie Ae- I mean just Lillie.'' Ash raised an eyebrow at the slip of the tongue but didn't say anything.

Ash knew she was hiding something but he didn't really want to press for information. Everyone had something they'd rather not tell, especially these days. ''Well Lillie, it was nice to meet you. But I have to start on my journey if I want to avoid sleeping in the forest, so see ya.'' But before he could leave the girl grabbed him by the arm. Ash looked back at her with an unamused frown plastered on his face.

''Wait! I... Need your help with something.'' She said with a pleading look in her eyes.

Ash sighed at that and shook his head. ''Look you're really pretty, but there's no way I'm helping a stranger out of nowhere like this.'' He proceeded to get his arm free and tried once again to walk away. but Lillie quickly ran in front of him and stood her ground to stop him in his tracks. Ash sighed in annoyance. ''I told you I'm not helping you. The only reason a girl would ask for the help of someone like me would be because whatever you need is dangerous. There's no way I'm putting myself in danger for someone I just met.''

''I can make it worth your while.'' She said with a grin and Ash blushed but did his best to give her an unamused frown.

''Look I might be a teenager but I'm not that desperate-'' He started to say in a insulted tone but the girl quickly shook her head and flailed her arms around in a panicked manner.

''No, not that! There's an amazing and rare treasure at the place I want to go to. Help me retrieve one specific thing from that place and all the rest can be your!'' She exclaimed while lifting both of her hands in the air for emphasis.

Ash paused at that, the way she said that sounded like he could land a lot of money from this little mission. Sure it was still dangerous but it's not like he had much to lose anymore so might as well risk it all for a chance to get out of this hole right? Ash sighed.''Fine but if you're lying to me you won't live long enough to regret it.''

Lillie shook her head and smiled confidently. ''I'm not lying, you won't regret coming with me.''

The raven haired boy crossed his arms. ''Alright then, lead the way.'' Both of them started walking further into the town. No one bothered them as they entered inside the alleys. They continued to walk for almost half an hour until they reached the rundown part of town. Then they stopped in front of an old abandoned factory that had clearly been used as makeshift base after the fall of civilisation. A lot of windows had been broken. The ones on the ground level had been close off by planks of woods. The windows on upper floor had been left mostly untouched but they still couldn't see inside of them due to all the dust. The previous owners probably assumed no one would bother to climb the building. The doors had been locked with old rusty padlocks and all over the wall there were warnings in red paint that promised death to anyone that dared enter inside the building.

''So this is the place?'' Ash asked calmly, death threaths was nothing new to him and the place didn't look that threathening compared to some place he had snuck into.

''Yes, but be careful this might not look like it but this place once belonged to very dangerous people.'' She said with a frown on her face.

As they approached the locked door Ash scratched his chin. ''Maybe there's something we can use to break this thing, wait here while I look around.'' But just as he turned around he heard the sound of something snapping. Looking back he saw that Lillie had somehow managed to snap the padlock in half. ''What? How did you do that?'' He asked with a baffled expression.

She shrugged with an innocent look in her eyes. ''I have my ways.''

Ash rolled his eyes and huffed at her. ''Whatever, let's get this over with.'' He said before kicking the door opened. The building interior was really dark. But there was just enough sunlight filtering throught the broken windows and the gaping hole in the ceiling for them to see where they were going. Lillie led him to a door that went downstair. Ash almost tripped more than once due to the lack of light. But they managed to make their way in the basement without too much problems.

Surprisingly the basement was more illuminated than the first floor. Some complicated contraption lined up the walls. Some of them were still active, even if the place looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago.

''So what are we looking for exactly?'' Ash asked, but Lillie simply walked away instead of responding to him. ''Fine, I guess I don't need to know.'' He muttered under his breath before following her.

They soon came in front of a metalic door. The girl turned toward him. ''I guess I should have asked this before, but you know how to unlock a door with a bobby pin right?''

Ash raised an eyebrow. ''So that's what you needed my help with?'' He asked incrediously.

''Well yes and no, there's actually a much more important reason why you're here. But I don't really know how to unlock door myself, so I was kind of hoping you could.'' Lillie said while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

''Well yeah I wouldn't have survived this long if I didn't know how to unlock a door or two. Unfortunately I'm all out of bobby pins right now.'' He said while crossing his arms.

At that the girl smiled proudly before retreving something from the pouch hanging on the side of her waist. ''Here you can have one of mine.''

Ash quickly went to work on the door it took him about two minutes before the door finally gave a soft click and he gently pushed the door open. The first thing that struck him was the eerie green light pouring out of the room. There was also many smells wafting out from it. The more prominent one was the smell of stale air, there was also a smell of sterilization but it was very faint. As if the room hadn't been sterlized in a long time. There was also a third smell that Ash couldn't really describe but it was very strange and alien to him. As soon as he stepped inside he froze in shock.

The room was massive and it was filled with rows and rows of strange pods lining up the walls. Inside the pods was a strange green glowing substance. Even more surprising were the creatures of all shape and size all sleeping inside of them. One of the pods that immediatly caught his attention looked like it had exploded from the inside and there was dried up goo laying all around it.

''What the heck is this?! I thought this was some random bandits hideout, but this is creepy as hell!'' Ash exclaimed in shock.

Lillie sighed at that. ''I guess it was not realistic to think you wouldn't catch on. Yes this use to be a base for the CGO, but they abandoned it after the Knights of Humanity became more active in the area.''

He looked at her in disbelief. ''Wait, the Cult of The Great Ones has technology like this? I thought they were just a bunch of lunatics hiding in a hole somewhere.''

Lillie laughed hollowly at that and shook her head which made her blonde hair wave gently in the air. ''Oh if only that was true. But we have lost enough time, come with me.'' Ash groaned in annoyance as the girl briskly walked away from him. Not even waiting for him to catch up for one second. She stopped once they came in front of a faintly glowing terminal. ''This is it, this is the reason why I bought you here.''

He looked at the machine with an apprehensive expression. ''What? Are you expecting me to hack this? I'm really not familiar with computers. There's not much of them left since the Pokémon fucked up the entire world.''

Lillie shook her head in response. ''No I just want you to use the terminal to release something important to me. It's very simple even an idiot could do it.''

Ash looked at her with a unamused expression. ''if it's so simple why did you drag me here? You could have done this yourself.'' She sighed at that before approaching the terminal. But before she could lay a hand on it a small jolt of electricity shocked her hand away. She yelped and covered her hurt hand with her fingers.

Ash immediatly ran up to her side and looked at her with a concerned look. ''What the hell was that?! is your hand okay?''

Lillie hissed in pain for a few seconds before nodding with an angry expression. ''This terminal was made so only certain types of people could use it.'' She said in a clearly bitter tone.

''And what make you think I'm one of those people?'' Ash asked curiously.

''Believe me, I'm certain you will be able to use the terminal, now do it.'' She said with an impatient frown on her face.

Ash groaned in annoyance. ''Fine, but you said this was gonna be worth my while. All I'm seeing now is a bunch of monsters being imprisoned right where they belong.''

Lillie gave him a dirty expression, her green eyes lighting up with a dangerous fire. ''Your apparent dislike for Pokémon is noted. But there is something in here that I promise will be very useful to you.''

He shrugged at this and relaxed a little bit. ''Fine whatever, but if you try to double-cross me I might just take what you came here for instead.'' Lillie snorted and smiled at that as if he had said something really funny, but said nothing more. Ash sat on the chair in front of the terminal and saw many icons pop up on the screen.

''Okay now you should open something called P-forty-five, do you see it?'' Lillie asked eagerly.

Ash looked at the screen before he remembered something very important. ''Umm, I know that's gonna sound dumb... But I don't know how to read.'' He said with a sheepish expression.

Lillie slapped her forehead in frustration. ''Are you serious?! How the heck do you not know how to read at your age?!'' She asked incrediously.

''Hey! It's not like there's that many school left in this world and most of them cost a fortune to attend to! Beside you never told me I would need to read to help you with this thing!'' He replied defensively.

Lillie sighed before stepping behind him. ''Fine, I guess I'll just have to tell you what to do. First you must click on this and then you'll see many numbers pop up, click on this one.'' And with a final push of the button they could hear a faint hissing coming from further away as well as the alien smell from earlier becoming stronger.

As soon as she heard the sound Lillie started running without any hesitation. ''H-hey wait for me!'' Ash yelled before running at full speed toward the fleeing blonde girl. Once he catched up to her he almost fell down on the floor as his foot slipped on a green liquid that covered a large part of the floor. Ash recoiled in disgust as he stare down at the mysterious liquid. ''What the heck is this?''

Meanwhile Lillie was too busy to take notice of Ash's predicament. Instead she was solely focus on a being that was slowly waking up from it's slumber. ''Nebby! Are you okay?'' The being apparently known as Nebby slowly opened up it's eyes and let out a small happy cry.

''Pew!''

''Oh Nebby! I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry I had to leave without you, but I'm here now! But I bet that from your perspective it hasn't been that long huh?'' She said with a small laugh.

He finally took notice of who she was talking to and he immediatly regretted coming to this little expedition. The being in question looked like some sort of weird cloud with eyes and a mouth. It's body was a very dark blue color and it had many glowing dots on it's body that made it look like a minature galaxy.

''Are you kidding me?!'' Ash roared angrily. ''You're telling me we went throught all this trouble just so you could save some damn Pokémon?! You should have let it rot here where it belong!''

Lillie glared icily back at him. ''Stop shouting! You're scaring Nebby!'' She yelled at him with narrowed eyes.

Ash laughed in pure disbelief. ''And you arleady gave it a name as well. That's it I'm getting out of here, there's no way in hell I'm hanging out with a lover of these damn monsters.'' He was about to storm off and leave her alone with the Pokémon. But just before he could cross the doorframe her voice stopped him.

''Fine you can leave, but if you do you'll miss out on the reward for helping me.'' She said in a smug tone.

That immediatly caught his attention. ''Wait, so you were serious about that? I was beginning to think you scammed me.'' He said to her.

Lillie looked offended at the accusation. ''You can think what you want of me, but I'm a woman of my words. Come with me I will show you something precious I found last time I was here.'' Ash was reluctant to follow her especially, when he saw her delicately putting the Pokémon in her pouch as if was some sort of precious stuffed toy. The small cloud of stars poke it's head out from the pouch and squealed furiously at Ash as if it knew what he tought of it.

But in the end he couldn't resist the promise of treasures and so he followed Lillie deeper into the hideout. They stepped inside what looked like an office room filled to the brims with all sort of papers. Ash couldn't begin to guess why someone would need so many of them. At the back of the room he could see a beautiful woman with long blonde hair that covered half of her face wearing a long white coat. Standing to her left was a smilling old man that Ash knew very well from his childhood.

''Professor Oak? Why does these crazy people have a picture of a respectable man like him?'' He asked with a perplexed expression.

Lillie didn't respond to his question instead and she looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but here at the moment. But she walked toward a rug in the middle of the room and tossed it aside, revealing a small trap door in the floor. Opening it up revealed a small wooden box she took it and presented it toward Ash. ''Here it is, these will be very useful whether you use them or sell them at a very high price. If you do end up selling them try to give them to people who wont's misuse them alright?''

Curious Ash opened up the box and he lost his breath, both from wonder and horror at what was inside. ''Are those what I think it is?'' He asked arleady knowing the answer but not wanting to believe it.

Lillie nodded with a grin litting up her face. Inside the box were eight precious gems, all of them had similar shapes, they were all of a different colors. From left to right there was icy blue, red, navy blue, green, yellow, lavender blue, pink and finally purple. ''Draconid Gems, like I said it will be very useful to you whether you use them or sell them.'' She said in a proud tone.

Ash looked at her with an offended expression. ''There's no way I'm using one of these things.''

She shrugged and rolled her eyes at him. ''That's your loss, but I'm sure you can make a small fortune if you sell them somewhere where they're in high demand. Like the Ding Dong Resistance for example.''

Ash sighed, he really didn't want to risk to go to that forsaken place. But she was right, if he sold them these things, he wouldn't need to worry for food for a year at the very least. ''Well I guess it was worth it in the end. Money is money after all, even if it does end up helping those monster fuckers.'' He said in clear distaste. Lillie shook her head in annoyance before walking away. Ash followed her, they walked in silence almost all the way throught.

Lillie stopped once she noticed the still lit up terminal from earlier. ''We should turn off the terminal. if the CGO come back here they might get suspicious if they see it still open.'' She said to him.

Ash grunted in response before making his way toward the worn down machine, ''So I press the big red button to turn it off right?''

Lillie eyes widened in horror at that. ''No wait!'' But it was too late with a press of a button the lights all turned red and a loud blaring sound filled the entire hideout.

''W-what's happening?'' Ash asked fearfully. The Pokémon in the girl's pouch began to squeal in a high pitch tone.

Lillie turned toward him, her face drained of all color. ''Run!''

Entry from the Pokédex

Subject: Draconid Gems

For the first few centuries after the Invasion. Pokéballs as we know it in modern time did not exist. Even the now famous fruit we call Apricorn was nowhere to be found in this era. Making the crafting of pokéballs quite impossible. Instead trainers of that time used special gems called Draconid Gems.

Weirdly this gem seem to be nowhere to be found in modern time and the way to craft them has been lost to time. The most common theory is that they fell out of use after the invention of the Pokéballs due to the inconvenient fact that Draconid Gems could only capture Pokémon of the same type they were made for.

Only a few of them were conserved for the sake of history. The most notable one being the Draconid Gem that was once in the possession of Sir Aaron which was used to contain his loyal companion Lucario.

AN: So in the original series of World of Elestia I would often end a chapter by writting an entry from the G.E.E.K. (Global Encyclopedia for Elestian Knowledge) Which is the equivalent of the Pokédex in that world. The entries were mostly centered around explaining the biology and behaviors of the different Elestia species.

However since I'm sure most of you reading this are quite familiar with Pokémon species arleady I will instead use these segment to explain how this current time period slowly transitioned in the Pokémon world we know today. Or how the Pokémon of this time might behave differently from the current era.